A variety of techniques and apparatuses have been used to satisfy the requirements of automated currency handling machines. As businesses and banks grow, these businesses are experiencing a greater volume of paper currency. These businesses are continually requiring not only that their currency be processed more quickly but also processed with more options in a less expensive manner. At the upper end of sophistication in this area of technology are machines that are capable of rapidly discriminating and counting multiple currency denominations and then sorting the currency bills into a multitude of output compartments.
However, many of these high-end machines are extremely large such that they are commonly found only in large institutions. These machines are not readily available to businesses which have space constraints, but still have the need to process large volumes of currency. For example, one of these machines can cost over $500,000, and with added currency document receiving units, such as a strapping unit, additional output receptacles, or a shredder, the machines may be too large to fit within a room size found in many buildings.
Typically, in the handling of bulk currency, after the currency bills have been analyzed, denominated, authenticated, counted, and/or otherwise processed, the currency bills are sorted by denomination into separate output receptacles or cassettes. The resulting individual stacks of bills having a single denomination often must then be further processed so that the bills therein may be strapped. Bill strapping is a process whereby a stack of a specific number of bills of a single denomination are bounded together such as being secured with a paper strap. For example, one dollar bills may be segregated into stacks of one hundred $1 bills and then bound with a paper strap. Strapping facilitates the handling of currency by allowing the strapped stacks of bills to be counted rather than the individual currency bills. Traditionally, U.S. currency bills are strapped in stacks containing one hundred bills.
Some systems are capable of strapping bills while continuing to evaluate other currency bills or other currency documents. Some such systems are described in U.S. Patent Publication No. 2004/0003980, incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
One limitation with the prior systems is the overall size of the system. While a multi-pocket document processing device may be 5 feet in length, a single additional strapping device may be 3 feet in length. Further, it is common for a multi-pocket currency document processing system to further include additional modular output receptacles, and multiple strapping devices. Thus, it is possible for a multi-pocket currency document processing system to have an overall length of, for example, 25 feet when including all of the additional currency document receiving units such as output receptacles and strapping devices. However, the depth of the multi-pocket processing system is typically less than 2 feet. Thus, a very long, narrow room may be used to house such a document processing system. However, such a long room may not be practical for many locations, thus it would be desirable to have a multi-pocket document processing device that is configured to have a shorter overall length.